House GOP leaders skeptical of Ted Cruz’s plan to end Obama’s 2012 amnesty for DREAMers

posted at 12:01 pm on July 18, 2014 by Allahpundit

Look at it this way: Not only was it never going to pass Congress, passage wasn’t really the point. The point was to give Cruz some extra border-hawk cred for the 2016 primaries. Now, when he smacks Rubio at the debates for backing the Gang of Eight bill, he can contrast it with his own attempt to cut off the executive amnesty that’s drawing young illegals here in the first place. The bill doesn’t need to pass for Cruz to be able to do that.

Some Republicans worry that Cruz’s bill, in this context at least, is a political loser. “Doing so in the midst of the current crisis could look like an overreach, particularly given how the mainstream media will distort it,” a House Republican leadership aide tells National Review Online. “We’re still waiting to hear from the Border Working Group, and nothing has been ruled in or out. Also, it’s certainly possible to deal with that issue legislatively at another time.”

Senate majority leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) kicked off the morning by accusing Cruz of trying to deport children who are “legitimately” in the country.

“Before Republicans help our Border Patrol agents and all the personnel that’s trying to do something to handle this humanitarian crisis, they want President Obama to deport the DREAMers who are already here, legitimately here,” Reid said. “These are children. But instead of considering a thoughtful, compassionate solution to a real-life crisis on our border, radical Republicans are trying to hold these kids ransom.”

The GOP’s worried that the media will follow Reid’s lead and accuse Cruz of wanting to send all young illegals home, even the ones who’ve been here for years. Cruz’s office knew that attack would be coming, which is why they reached out yesterday to stress that his bill would merely cut off eligibility for Obama’s 2012 amnesty to future illegals, not rescind it for those already covered by the program. Behold the power of leftist demagoguery, aided and abetted by the media: Even though Cruz watered down his anti-amnesty bill to make it harder for Democrats to accuse him of cruelty, House Republicans aren’t willing to bet that he can get the truth out over the din of liberal lies. After watching Pelosi and the press mangle the Hobby Lobby ruling to serve the left’s “war on women” narrative, who can blame them?

Meanwhile, the House’s “working group” on the border crisis has finalized its “set of principles” for a bill, the highlight of which is that illegal immigrant children should remain in HHS’s custody until they see an immigration judge. That would, in theory, prevent kids from disappearing into the U.S. before a deportation order can be served on them. Needless to say, Democrats will never agree to it, because Democrats don’t believe in enforcing the border. What’s the alternative, then? There’s always the Cornyn/Cueller bill that would authorize HHS to deport kids from Central America more expeditiously, but Mark Krikorian’s Center for Immigration Studies argues that the actual text of the bill is a disaster. Specifically, it appears to say that a deportation hearing can’t be held if the immigrant isn’t present unless both sides consent to it; that means kids who flee before their hearing could never have an order of deportation issue against them. It also seems to grant immigration judges the power to grant kids resident alien status in lieu of deportation. It’s a nonstarter.

What’s the other alternative, then? Via Conn Carroll, Krikorian’s outfit has looked at the 2008 child trafficking law and thinks there may be a loophole in the statute that would let Obama speed up deportations even without any new action by Congress:

The law requires “[e]xcept in the case of exceptional circumstances” that any department or agency of the federal government that has an unaccompanied alien child in custody to transfer the custody of such child to the HHS secretary within 72 hours after determining that such child is, in fact, an unaccompanied alien child. It is unclear what would count as “exceptional circumstances”, but perhaps a massive surge in illegal immigration could be taken into account. In fact, Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) recently told DHS Secretary Jeh Johnson at a Senate hearing that the “exceptional circumstances” provision in the 2008 act would allow President Obama discretion in how the law is applied in light of the influx of illegal immigration.14 The senator suggested that amending the law was unnecessary.

Like Conn says, executive action here would be different from Obama’s standard executive power grabs because the statute passed by Congress specifically authorizes it. Obama could, if he wanted to, declare that the border crisis is an “exceptional circumstance” and order summary deportations of kids coming across the border in lieu of handing them over to HHS. That sort of bold executive option is right up his alley on most days — yet, curiously, he’s refused to exploit the loophole in this case. Anyone want to float a theory as to why?

By the way, Cruz will be with Glenn Beck at the border this weekend helping to deliver humanitarian aid. Not even that is enough to assuage GOP fears of lefties accusing him of hating the kids.

Blowback

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The leaderships of the two GOP caucus’ should worry less about what is going on on the other side of The Hill, and more about where they left their butt-kicking brogans for use against their actual political opponents, those people with a “D” after their names.

The GOP’s worried that the media will follow Reid’s lead and accuse Cruz of wanting to send all young illegals home

Since this is what the current law says why the hell are we even talking about this?

If you broke the law to come here, we should deposit you on the other side of the border…end of story.

Oh, and if we had an opposition party instead of the go along and get along Republican party, it might be good to hear from productive members of society who came here legally and how much they had to go through…

The Wilberforce Act (the 2008 child trafficking law) does not even apply to most of the new illegal alien minors crossing the border, because the Act defines “unaccompanied” to mean a kid who has no parents or other family members in the U.S. who can take custody of them. The vast majority of illegal alien kids coming in now already have (illegal alien) family members living here — the U.S.-based family members are the ones paying the drug cartels to bring the kids to the border (where U.S. Border Patrol helpfully picks them up and then delivers them to their illegal alien relatives in the U.S.)

But Obama, as usual, is not applying the 2008 law as written, but as he prefers to deliberately (mis)interpret the law for his own political purposes.

In any event, most of these recently-arrived illegal alien kids’ asylum claims will be granted by this corrupt administration, and granted before they ever see the inside of an immigration court.

No one in the GOP leadership has any kind of plan to communicate leadership and deal with this, they are pathetic.

Why won’t someone on the Hill grow a pair and fight the media?

Do what is right, then go full frontal assault on the media, appear everywhere you can with the unvarnished truth, take these media anchors head on with as many live interviews as possible to get the message through to the people.

Go on the offensive! Lead dammit!

Why are they so cravenly jellyfish about everything?

It is one of two possibilities:

A. They really are terrified of the MSM

B. They are really in cahoots with Obama on behalf of the Chamber of Commerce for amnesty and it is you and I they are really afraid of.

Bah, the House GOPe aren’t skeptical, they are in collusion with the Whitehouse and the Democrats. Otherwise todays BREAKING NEWS would be the entire GOPe leadership demanding to know who the hell deputy attorney general in the Department of Justice James Cole thinks he is telling Congress to Phuck off.

oscarwilde on July 18, 2014 at 12:15 PM

We need to rally and vote for Christie or Jeb Bush so that they can prosecute her in 2017. They believe in the rule of law. /s

OK HERE’S AN IDEA FOR PEOPLE WHO ARE TOO STUPID TO BREATH. WIN THE CHAMBER. THEN GIT RID OF THOSE YOU DON’T LIKE IN THAT CHAMBER. WE HAVE THE HOUSE. WHY DO WE HAVE BORHNER? WE DON’T HAVE THE SENATE. WHY DID WE PRIMARY MCCONNELL?

the House’s “working group” on the border crisis has finalized its “set of principles”

Where have we heard something like that before? Oh yeah, in Ryan and Cantor and Boehner’s “principles of immigration” call for amnesty “lite” which would soon be full amnesty. It’s one thing for the R House leadership to hold a position that is contrary to most Republicans, but for Boehner to, in addition to that, adding true insult to injury, to openly mock in a such juvenile way those that are seriously opposed to amnesty. It’s an outrage. Boehner is not fit to be the R leader.

Speaking of people too stupid to breathe. Hey, I know how we can get rid of Hillary in 2016. First we elect her as president…..

xblade on July 18, 2014 at 12:32 PM

I RESEMBLE THAT REMARK, AND I WOULD NOT VOTE FOR HILLARY UNLESS THE NOMINEE WAS RAND PAUL, CHRIS CHRISTIE, MARCO RUBIO, MITT ROMNEY, SCOTT WALKER, OR PICK YOUR GUARANTEED RINO. JEB WOULD BE FUNNY, BECAUSE AT LEAST A FEW LIBS WOULD COMMIT SUICIDE OVER A BUSH.

How about the GOPe actually do their jobs and represent the people they were elected to serve and forget the political calculations? Cruz is one of the few who understands that America is a representative republic.

No….The GOP RINOS don’t want to send Illegal Aliens back to their own countries…..and neither do RINO writers at Hot Air….

Realdemocrat1 on July 18, 2014 at 12:42 PM

Thinking that the U.S. will be stronger with tens of millions of uneducated, unskilled aliens who don’t speak English makes as much sense as an NFL team getting stronger by adding 15 uncoordinated, slow 135 pound 65 year old men.

Now, new numbers released by the House Judiciary Committee show the “vast majority” of unaccompanied minors seeking asylum are granted it before even appearing before a judge. “Information from U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) that shows 65 percent of unaccompanied alien minors’ asylum applications have been immediately approved by asylum officers in Fiscal Year 2014,” says a Judiciary Committee statement. “And this is just the first bite of the apple. Many more cases can be approved later. Where an asylum officer does not approve the application, it is then referred to an immigration judge where the applicant can try again. If that fails, they can continue to appeal their case.”

And even as we speak, legions of LaRaza activists and Obama-supporting government workers (but I repeat myself) are busy coaching the new arrivals in how to answer the asylum officers’ questions to ensure that they get their “refugee” status — which then entitles them to apply for the full range of federal welfare benefits.

So Ned Pepper LOVES HAVING A KING AS his leader telling him what to eat, how to live his life, and what to say. Ned Pepper must be really dumb if he can’t live his life without a king telling him how to live it 24/7.

The GOPe is owned by the Chamber of Commerce, just like the dems are owned by the unions and Planned Parenthood. Sad that so very few elected officials feel obligated to represent their constituents and not their contributors. One more reason we need TERM LIMITS!

Even though Cruz watered down his anti-amnesty bill to make it harder for Democrats to accuse him of cruelty, House Republicans aren’t willing to bet that he can get the truth out over the din of liberal lies. After watching Pelosi and the press mangle the Hobby Lobby ruling to serve the left’s “war on women” narrative, who can blame them?

I am curious AP. Do you guys, or any other conservative blogs, send your point of view to the main stream media outfits? Maybe if conservative bloggers would send posts like this to Fox, CNN, CBS, ABC, NBC etc.. they would be jolted out of their bubble an realize that there is another, intelligent point of view of immigration, foreign policy, economics etc…

One of the many ironies of the current illegal alien invasion is that cartel smugglers are making $50,000 or more a week (per Drudge), with very little work. All they have to do is get the alien within walking distance of the border (Mexico side) and U.S. Border Patrol does the rest.

The cartels are becoming richer, and therefore more powerful, because of this invasion and all the money the smugglers are making by facilitating it. And Americans are being told that the reason we have to let all these illegal aliens stay here is because their home countries are too dangerous for them to live in — because of the cartels.

Yet here we are, actively aiding and abetting these same cartels, and setting up the circumstances by which they become even richer and more powerful (as thousands of illegal alien families in the U.S. pay them $5,000 – $7,500 per head, to smuggle more aliens into the U.S.).

And as the cartels become more powerful and more dangerous, they make more people in their countries want to flee to the U.S. So it’s just a vicious cycle, and we’re funding it. Like idiots.

Behold the power of leftist demagoguery, aided and abetted by the media:

– BS Allah!

*RANT*
This is the “power” of not having an opposition! The “power” of not having a republican party that can respond to it’s voters concerns 59% of the countries concern! Only 27%(Rasmussen) thinks they should temporarily stay – 59% leave immediately. Deportation IS popular in this case- EXTREMELY popular.

The media and the dems aren’t loved and all powerfull. They don’t have to be. The opposition party is not opposing, so…

Oh, and let’s not impeach, defund, end a law, oppose, talk ill … cause we have this lawsuit which (if it isn’t dismissed-likely) should see a court room in a few years /putz repub rino squish moderate idiots.

Oh, f*ck it. I am BEYOND f*cking sick to death of this. I’ve never been so angry in my entire life, and I don’t want the left defeated – I want them utterly destroyed, f*cking obliterated, with no trace that they ever existed. So much so that people are afraid to even discuss it in the future, much less even whisper that they think progressive thought has merit.

This is no longer a discussion with different points of view, this is f*cking war.

Look at it this way: Not only was it never going to pass Congress, passage wasn’t really the point. The point was to give Cruz some extra border-hawk cred for the 2016 primaries

AP, where everything is always and only about politics and optics.

You know, occasionally there are a few people that actually try to have an impact on things for the better of the everyone/others, not just themselves. Apparently, that’s a foreign concept – your future relationships would be well-advised to consider this.

You know, occasionally there are a few people that actually try to have an impact on things for the better of the everyone/others, not just themselves. Apparently, that’s a foreign concept – your future relationships would be well-advised to consider this.

Midas on July 18, 2014 at 1:13 PM

AP has the same defeatist attitude as the GOPe– They have become regular Eeyore. “It won’t pass, so let’s not try it.” “We have to wait until we retain more power to do anything worthwhile.”

Look at it this way: Not only was it never going to pass Congress, passage wasn’t really the point. The point was to give Cruz some extra border-hawk cred for the 2016 primaries. Now, when he smacks Rubio at the debates for backing the Gang of Eight bill, he can contrast it with his own attempt to cut off the executive amnesty that’s drawing young illegals here in the first place. The bill doesn’t need to pass for Cruz to be able to do that.

Stop teasing, AP. You had me at hello.
McCain has already gone amnesty again with his picks for president. Yeah, they’re crap.

Immediate deportation is the MAINSTREAM. The two party money cult (H/T ApacheWhoKnows) are at odds with the citizenry. NO MORE BS ABOUT THE “OPTICS”. The optics of No Borders are what most Americans are worried about.

BoxHead1 on July 18, 2014 at 1:09 PM
Well said!
Per usual, AP misdirects the readers to the machinations inside the Beltway! Where all the scummy politicos reside. He should be discussing the facts of what American Citizens are concerned about, porous borders and the intentional disregard of our immigration laws by past and present executives at the White House. As Boxhead1 aptly showed, the significant majority of Americans want immediate deportation and securing our borders. No Amnesty, ever….we’ve done it before and this is what we get. Screw the GOP leadership, which is an oxymoron!

I attended one of those local protests this morning, by the way – there was even what the left believes to be a non-existent person there – you know, a black conservative. Not a big turn-out, but it was early, and I couldn’t stay for the whole thing.

I’m beyond resigned that it doesn’t matter any more; I’m simply prepping for war at this point, I don’t see any other path.

“Doing so in the midst of the current crisis could look like an overreach, particularly given how the mainstream media will distort it,” a House RepublicanChamber of Commerce leadership aide tells National Review Online.

ReWrite™ engaged for the entity most opposed to anything that doesn’t explicitly mandate both amnesty and wide-open borders and the entity that owns the party formerly known as the GOP, though I repeat myself.

Law abiding immigrants are being forced to wait while DACA’s foreign national invaders jump the line to receive work permits as their “background checks” are rubber stamped.

An executive order 1) “must stem either from the an act of Congress or the Constitution itself,” and 2) an executive order is on dubious ground if it’s “incompatible with the express or implied will of Congress.”

Seeing as Congress voted against the “Dream Act” on 3 occassions, Obama’s enactment of the DACA program is blatantly unconstitutional and illegal.

It is long past time for Congress to stand up to barack, and not with a silly lawsuit.

‘Always let a crisis paralyze you.’ That’s the Republicans version of the Democrat strategy of ‘Never let a crisis go to waste’.

The Republican leaders are ruled by fear of what people will think of them. People of principle who stand for something are more concerned about the principles on which they stand. No courage among this group though. Not a one of them is of true leadership material in my opinion.

It makes it real easy to say ‘no’ when they ask for a donation to the party. I’d really like a viable alternative to voting for any of these wusses.

Sen. Cruz is certainly capable of debating the issue with Reid and of making the cretin leader look like the lying demagogue that he is. Why do the ninnies in the Republican leadership not allow Cruz to present his point(s) to the public? He certainly speaks for the majority of taxpayers who are being put on the hook for the administration’s malfeasance.

Has Reid ever tried to hold back Durbin or Schumer? The three of them are utterly outrageous, yet we never hear the GOP hammer them for the blatant lies and exagerrations that these three amigos blather.